Some people say that the battle for Web Standards has been won, with most designers already conscious of standards compliance. But based on my personal observation, there are still a few things about Web Standards that escape even the seasoned vets of web design:
- Web Standards do not pertain to one technology – Web Standards, at its most fundamental form, is actually the set of recommendations (HTML/XHTML, CSS & JavaScript at the very least). To use a particular Content Management System (CMS) does not automatically guarantee that the site is Web Standards-compliant. (Although a great deal of CMSes do a great job of taking Web Standards into consideration.)
- Web Standards-compliance is an authoring approach – Beyond the valid code and compliance to the recommendations, Web Standards takes into account semantic mark-up and accessibility
- The Web Standards are held back by software – Yes, I’m talking about browsers. By the end of the year, the HTML 5 specification will most likely be complete. How many browsers will be ready to handle them? We don’t know.
I hope these three little nuggets will help you understand Web Standards better. You can always refer to the Web Standards Project website for more information on this topic. :)